


Our Way Is On The Road Again

by hummingrightalong



Category: Fear the Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, daisy dog
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-23
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-08-06 04:26:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16381367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hummingrightalong/pseuds/hummingrightalong
Summary: After the dam, Troy, Nick, and some family and friends are traveling towards a far away safe house. Eventually they have to stop for rest and supplies. Troy is supposed to be resting after the attack by Madison, but he doesn't listen.





	Our Way Is On The Road Again

It’s an argument that goes across state lines.

It doesn’t end until the little company LITERALLY has to stop for supplies and to gas up. 

Everyone is exhausted, opinionated, and just a bit sick of eachother.

Someone suggests a laundromat. Terrible choice, most of the remaining party agrees. In truth, it was because they were filthy and there was a slim hope in her heart that maybe, just maybe, the machines might still function. There might be a way. 

Thinking about it later, what laundromat had she ever seen that didn’t have just one miserable exit with giant bay windows. None she could remember.

Somebody else suggests a library. It’s not a terrible idea, multiple floors, big stacks to move against entries and there’s always something about a good old building full of books to make you feel safe and comforted. But there wasn’t one within reach of anything useful, and in itself there’d be no reason for it to have anything of value to loot.

They finally drive through a cul-de-sac. Still bickering about security, about how most of these quaint little suburban homes would have been looted when families left or later by passerby- or crawling with walkers.

Troy has been out most of the trip but he chooses this moment as one of the few to rouse and mumble feebly “shut up” and “here’s good enough, or would we rather be stranded without any gas OR shelter...roll the dice”.

So they round up, ‘rolling the dice’ on a house that looks the most intact, surrounded by a sturdy fence and gate. The front door is closed, the windows boarded - almost like they had been preparing for a hurricane and not the end of the world...The city people in the party make vague comments about ‘having seen this movie before’, and how 2 story homes are never a good place to hide out but none can actually answer when asked “as opposed to a ONE story home?”

Ultimately, desperation and the wanting to let Troy rest his head injury, and get both he and Jake going on another round of antibiotics, settles the disagreement. 

The Otto brothers were meant to be keeping an eye on one another, forced under no uncertain terms to rest their injuries. They could build up strength and heal while the others split up and explored the area before sundown. 

Nobody makes a joke about splitting up. Bad luck maybe, or just bad taste.

At some point, between trying to keep their spirits light and generally being scared to death on whether Troy would pull through, Jake slips into a light sleep.

Blame it on the head injury, or just Troy’s natural inability to keep still for very long, but soon after his brother gets quiet he slips out of the cot they’d set up for him, freeing himself of the tube in his arm delivering much needed medicine (he never had a use for anything like that, he’d said, brattier than usual as was to be expected when the younger Otto wasn’t feeling well).

Slipping out the door- ‘just for some air’ he thinks through the pain and confusion and blurry vision- he first hears a terrible noise in the neighboring abandoned home. It’s not quite a moan, or a growl, or a scream, but something like the three combined. He sees a shadow pass by one of the lower windows.

He could let it go. He knows even in the state he’s in that the rest of the group has obviously already written that house off as not worth the trouble- the windows are busted and the front door is hanging off the hook...But the shambling corpse they’ve left behind inside is obviously excited about something. 

That’s when he hears the little whimpers. Not human, but definitely alive. A whine, a shriek, and a pathetic...bark?

Oooh, fuck no. Nope. Daddy never let him have a dog. 

Troy slips under the fence between the two houses and right through a lower broken window. Miraculously, either he’s practiced enough at sneaking up on these fuckers or it’s too damn distracted because it never sees him coming.

Maybe it’s the innocent little white puppy shivering under the kitchen cabinet, trying it’s best to defend itself, poor little thing can’t know any better at this age than to try to be even smaller than it’s already pathetic but adorable tiny furry body. It tries to be quiet but can’t help but bark and yipe when the disgusting thing slashes at it’s hiding place, when it’s fingertips actually almost get purchase.

Troy reaches into a nearby kitchen door, looking for the biggest thing he can find before noticing the cleaver hanging from a hook and swinging hard at one of it’s ugly, withered limbs. The weapon isn’t good enough to cut it clean off like his trusty tactical machete (where was that damn thing…?) but it’s enough to damage it and distract it. He takes a bigger swing, this time right for the top of it’s head, and luckily, it sinks in far enough. The body drops, and the puppy comes running out, winds up sitting between his feet, shaking and whimpering.

“Ok, ok, don’t you worry…” He scoops him up, rummaging through the house for some dog food. He actually finds a few cans but makes a mental note (first to dislike whoever might’ve deserted their dog, if this is where the puppy’s mama used to live and it seemed the case..) to tell the search party they were going to need one more supply.

Forgetting himself, he wanders the neighborhood looking for his friends. Nick comes running up to him, seeing the blood before anything else and screaming (he shouldn’t be...but like an idiot he is...after all, he almost lost this man once).

“What the hell are you doing out of bed?”

Troy just grimaces at him, presenting the soft white baby animal that’s very life depended on him now. At that thought, he tucks it back away from Nick’s sight. “What’s it look like?” He replies grumpily, adding that he’s “goddamn fine” when Nick paws at him, checking for bites. “I took care of it. I ain’t bit…”

Nick, however, IS bit....as soon as his worried hands get too close to the puppy’s little mouth. It growls -ADORABLY- and looks up at the man it seems to have chosen as its new daddy. Nick nods,still holding up the injured finger. “Ok. You win. But back to bed. Both of you.” He picks up the walkie talkie and informs Cooper that they’re going to need dog food.

“Daisy.”

“We need daisies?” Nick wonders which of them is more confused.

“No, her name is Daisy.”

“Oh, ok.” Back on the walkie talkie “Cooper we need DAISY dog food.”


End file.
